Three weeks and counting

by Sarah Luna

These past few days have been relatively event-filled.

Tony turned 22 on Thursday. This is the first birthday of his that I’ve been in the same town (or state), so I wanted to do something fun. I sneaked over to his apartment Thursday morning before work and decorated his door and car with paperclips, pictures, and balloons. I know it sounds juvenile, but it hails back to sophomore year. That night a group of his REU students went to the Hall to celebrate. It had been a few weeks since I’d been there. I had a good time dancing, but it was way different without our normal crowd there. I got asked to dance by a really short guy who apparently “had to have a few drinks” to work up the nerve to ask me to dance. In the words of Alicia: “Oh man, that was a kamakaze statement on his part.” After that dance, I made sure to stand really close to our group.

Friday night, I watched Funny Face at Allyson’s house since it was next on her Netflix queue. We marveled that Audrey Hepburn was considered “funny” looking since now she is seen as a icon of beauty. Fred Astaire was brilliant as usual.

I continued my movie streak with Inception with the Nerds (and JP) on Saturday. I had only seen one preview for this film but had heard everyone raving about it. And it was good. But (and I feel almost treasonous for saying this) it wasn’t amazingly mind-blowingly good. I mean, yeah it was intriguing and had a creative idea, but the concepts really weren’t new. I wouldn’t even call it that deep. People fell asleep, manipulated dreams, and woke up. I have never really been a fan of the dream plot device. It always seemed too deus ex machina for me. Maybe I’m just being picky. I also found the lack of character development disappointing. We follow our characters essentially for 10 hours. Yes, in dream time it’s longer and there is exposition all throughout the plot, but we don’t see the characters grow. We don’t see particularly complex motives or interactions (with the exception of Cobb and Mal, as mentioned below). The relationships between characters are static, and the characters are simply doing their (albeit really cool) jobs. Nothing deep about that.

What I loved about this movie in one word: Mal. She added depth to this film that made the entire thing worth watching. Talk about a femme fatale (Rebecca, anyone?). She came right out of a film noir for our cinematic pleasure. Her character was intriguing to watch, and she gave Cobb a dimension of humanity that he otherwise lacked. Their relationship and interactions were satisfyingly complex. Watch this film to watch her.

My review may seem harsh since the whole world thought this movie was “so deep”. Maybe I’m missing something. Or maybe I just think at such depth normally that this seems right on par. I did enjoy it thoroughly, and it’s the type of movie that would improve with a second (and third) watching. Go see it. 🙂

The weekend ended with a cheese-themed dinner by the Summer Nerd group. Always a fun way to end the week. And now I’m back to work at outpatient having fun and getting spoiled by the old people. Life is pretty fun right now.